July 26, 2025 7:35 pm

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Mead and Nehring host Building Bridges Summit at WSU Everett to foster collaboration

EVERETT—Snohomish County Council members Jared Mead and Nate Nehring teamed up with former investigative journalist, now Results Washington Director, Jesse Jones, for their second annual Building Bridges Summit at Washington State University’s Everett campus Thursday, June 26.

building bridges summit
From left to right: Mukilteo City Councilman Jason Moon, Snohomish County Councilman Nate Nehring, Results Washington Director Jesse Jones, Jackson High School graduate Anja Duemchen, Jackson High School Grad Alejandro Carbajal, Building Bridges and Strategic Advisor Josh Estes, Washington State Senator John Lovick, Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead, and Everett Public Schools Assistant Principle Sechin Tower. Photo Source: Jared Mead

This year’s theme, “Conversations That Connect Us,” highlighted the impact of civil discourse when grounded in empathy, curiosity, and shared purpose. The event featured a live panel, moderated by Jones, insights from Jackson High School students and regional elected officials, a celebration of the Future Leaders Academy—created in partnership with Everett Public Schools—recognition of student essay winners, and networking, light refreshments, and authentic connection with local changemakers.

Wendy Poischbeg, CEO of the Greater Everett Chamber of Commerce, a proud sponsor of Thursday’s event, began the event by sharing a few words, stating that bringing the community together for respectful dialogue, shared purpose, and leadership that brings people together is what the Chamber of Commerce is all about.

Wendy Poischbeg
Wendy Poischbeg, CEO of the Greater Everett Chamber of Commerce. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore

Councilman Nehring followed Poischbeg, reminding the crowd that while the Building Bridges project was founded to stimulate civic health across the aisles it doesn’t always mean “agreement,” and “compromise.” It does, however, promote disagreement in a respectful way, finding common ground, and charting a path forward despite disagreements in political policy.

“When people from different political perspectives are able to set those differences aside and find ways to work together it produces better outcomes for everyone involves, particularly for the community,” said Nehring.

nate nehring
Snohomish County Nate Nehring. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore

Nehring’s co-founder, Mead, shared a story about how his young child formed a connection with someone her age the other day based on a shared interest in coloring. That connectivity, that empathy, Mead continued, can sometimes be lost growing into an adulthood but he believes that what has been lost can be found.

jared mead
Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore

After Josh Estes, Strategic Advisor who assisted Mead and Nehring kickstart the Building Bridges project, briefly mentioned the event’s sponsors, keynote speaker, and Emmy-Award winner Jesse Jones took the stage.

“The government’s job is to make its constituent’s lives easier, better, better than it was for us,” said Jones. “When you look into an issue, all I ask is to find more than two sides. We often hear ‘both sides’ but I’m asking you to look for all sides.”

jesse jones
Results WA Director Jesse Jones. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore.

Jones also emphasized a need to care for one another, equating the scene in Ridley Scott’s 2000 film Gladiator when Russel Crowe says to stick together. Using this example Jones said “no matter what comes through that gate we’re going to be okay if we stick together. The guy that runs is going to get eaten.”

State Senator John Lovick (D-Mill Creek), Sen. Ron Muzzall (R-Oak Harbor), Stillaguamish Tribe Vice Chairwoman Kadi Bizyayeva, and Mukilto City Council Vice Chair Jason Moon made up the first panel discussing how to break barriers, commune with those who disagree with you, and leading by example.

“We have to talk to each other. We can’t be enemies – see where we can find common ground,” said Sen. Lovick. “At the end of the day, if we disagree with something, we disagree on that, we’re not enemies.”

building bridges summit
Building Bridges Summit 2.0 Panelists. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore.

Also in attendance was Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, Everett City Council member Ben Zarlingo, Mill Creek Mayor Brian Holtzclaw, Mukilteo City Council member Mike Dixon, Snohomish County PUD Commissioner Julieta Altamirano-Crosby, and several others.

Future Leaders Academy

In 2023 the Building Bridges Project launched the Future Leaders Academy to help young people build the skills to address polarization.

Through this academy students learn about the basics of civics, meet with their elected representatives, participate in community volunteerism, and even embark on a field trip to the state capitol where they were able to sponsor a resolution.

Jackson High School Principal Sechin Tower spoke Thursday on the Academy and how “just going into that room was exciting to see students’ eyes light up when they talked about politics.” Most of all, Tower added, when students disagree, they know how to disagree productively.

Two Jackson High School graduates, Anja Duemchen and Alejandro Carbajal, made up the next and final panel with Tower, Mead, and Nehring, Thursday to discuss their time in the Future Leaders Academy and what it taught them about partisan politics.

building bridges summit
Building Bridges Summit 2.0 Panelists. (L-R) Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead, Sechin Tower, Anja Duemchen, Alejandro Carbajal, and Snohomish County Councilman Nate Nehring. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore.

“I was generally discouraged by the state of things,” said Carbajal. “I think there are a lot of echo chambers and derogatory terms that are used to refer to people on the other side, and I think it’s hard for us to escape from the shroud of partisanship and really have meaningful conversations.”

Duemchen added that prior to enrolling in the Future Leaders Academy she viewed politics as a series of disagreements or feuds that “got people nowhere.”

“Having gone through the program not only have I learned about different parts of the government, not only in the classroom, but being able to experience the state capitol, it’s not all feuds and disagreements, like it’s portrayed on the media, it’s very much a lot of people working together to take action, even if they are on different sides of the spectrum,” said Duemchen.

building bridges summit
Building Bridges Summit 2.0. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore.

Carbajal said after the program his biggest takeaway was that people, of varying beliefs, are people who have serious convictions and “you’re never going to get to understand” the root of those convictions if “you’re not even willing to sit down and discuss like equals.”

Deumchen built on Carbajal’s points with an example of one of her friends who, prior to joining the Building Bridges Project, could not have political conversations with seeing as they both supported different ideologies.

Now, she said, her relationship with her friend is stronger.

Background of Building Bridges

On January 6, 2021, when Mead and Nehring had only been council members together for about six months, the two tuned in to the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and exchanged a set of text messages agreeing that however you classified that day’s events – whether an insurrection, a riot, or otherwise – common ground could be found on one thing: the demonstration that day reflected a sad state of affairs in the political culture of the nation.

adrianne wagner
Adrianne Wagner, CEO, Leadership Snohomish County, speaking at Building Bridges Summit 2.0 on June 26, 2025. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore.

Mead, a Democrat, and Nehring, a Republican, had already shared their ideological differences most accurately demonstrated through their council voting record, but they were united that day on the grounds that the United States needed to come together as a country as opposed to being torn apart.

The two co-authored an op-ed piece for a local newspaper together, receiving expected heat from their respective political organizations. That was to be expected, what wasn’t to be expected was all the positive response from community members, and many community-based organizations who invited the two to speak.

For the next two years the two shared their message at approximately 40 speaking events at local high schools, colleges, local Rotaries, Kiwanis Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and other groups throughout Snohomish County.

If Mead had to guess, he and Nehring must have talked to about 10,000 people during those two years of speaking events. The most educational part of these conversations, for them, was to learn that most of their community who engaged them shared their same views.

In 2023 Mead and Nehring launched a more intentional speaking tour they called the Building Bridges tour, in partnership with the YMCA, Sno-Isle Libraries, and the Boys & Girls Club, where they held round table discussions to each of the four corners of Snohomish County for city officials and the public alike. Anywhere between 75 to 100 people attended these events participating in a discussion of how to get the country back on track.

That tour culminated in a Building Bridges Summit event in December of 2023 featuring Washington Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, and former Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler as keynote speakers as well as Mayors, and tribal leaders. It was during this event when Mead and Nehring officially announced their idea for a Building Bridges Project nonprofit. That nonprofit officially launched at the beginning of 2024.

“I think both civic education and community engagement are critical for a healthy society and for combatting political polarization,” Nate Nehring told the Lynnwood Times. “Quality civic education can help us to better understand our own history, including the most trying times our great nation has faced. Many may look at the current political situation and think “there’s no way we can ever turn this around”, but the reality is that we have faced greater challenges to remaining united as a country before and have come through even stronger.”

building bridges summit
Building Bridges Summit 2.0 on June 26, 2025. Lynnwood Times | Mario Lotmore.
Kienan Briscoe
Author: Kienan Briscoe

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